Poll: Grain to Gain 1D vs 2D

Game Design Discussion
1

Howllo everyone!

I have a question to propose to all of you that could drastically change the game, Grain to Gain (GtG), for either better or worse. I know as the developer I should make this choice myself, but I am interested in what the community would think about this change.

If you were on the discord on April 1st, you may have seen a teaser/April Fools joke that showed a fake screenshot of the game GtG in a 2D manner (2D as in it uses pixels vs 1D that uses a string of characters). I was mostly joking, but a part of me liked the idea. I actually had a crazy thought to do a series of the game that would get more graphically appealing in later installments (first would be in 1D, second would be in 2D, third in 3D???).

I was originally doing it as an ASCII game so I could learn C++ more effectively, but the semester of C++ programming I took hardly taught me anything so I’d mainly learned it via self taught (And tbh, I REALLY dislike how much C++ whines to me every single time I try something, like adding a new lib to work with). So C++ has been giving me a headache, I still would like to learn in, but I feel that now I’ve been playing with Gamemaker: Studios for a bit, I could make this lil ASCII game from mediocre to maybe a cool beans.

But I do want to hear everyone’s opinions on it. I can still go back and work on the ASCII version, though I would need to definitely rewrite the C++ because I have memory leaks in a lot of places apparently, big oops with apologies. (Mainly when the game ends, I didn’t tell it to delete the pointers, in case anyone was wondering what leak I was referring to (that is the only leaks I know so far)).

:+1:PROS:

-The game would have a more visualized style
-More freedom in character creation (not restricted to ASCII characters)
-A larger color palette (16 million+ vs 16 (255 since 2 colors can be used for each character))
-Utilization of Gamemaker: Studio’s abilities (I have the license to export onto Mac and Ubuntu (Linux). It will take a while since I have yet to successfully create a cross-platform game, but it will be one of the high priorities)
-Possibly more open customization?! (If I write it correctly, content could just be requiring some sprite sheets placed in a folder and some lines of text added to a text file)

:-1:CONS:

-Possibly longer development (For sprite creation/visual creation)
-Open-Source Limited (You would require a purchased copy of Gamemaker: Studios)
-Code transference (Rewriting the entire game from C++ into GML)

I am unsure what steps I may take to differentiate the 2D from the 1D, as I was kind of thinking maybe making the 2D more of a point-and-click adventure-esque with minigames requiring keyboard input (possibly add WASD controls along side point-and-click for movement). So there maybe more CONs than what I have listed here, but these are all the PROs and CONs I can think of at the moment.
So what do you all say about this?

1dv2d
What the difference would look like for the next major update
(1D on left, 2D on right)

  • 1D (Stays the same)
  • 2D (The good stuff?!)

0 voters

Thank you for your time and have a wonderful day!

2 Likes
2

Why not both? XD

I hate the character thingy lolololol

3

If you don’t mind using old Game maker studio v1.4, I can give you my license (windows + html5), since it can be used on 3 computers at a time (don’t tell anyone).

4

@Badcatalex
What character thingy do you hate?

@Fierylion
That is the version I’m using, I got all the licenses so you can share with someone else if you want :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like
5

Meant the minimum character limit, silly :stuck_out_tongue:

6

For posts? Yeah, it can be annoying but it reasonable since we should provide feedback on posts and not one letter responses. (Almost thought you were insulting my designs, lol)

7

Eh, fair enough. Although thing is that I tend to have things be under 20 characters… Also, I wouldn’t XD they’re good

8

character limit, whats that?

9

Can you even visually depict fatness in 1D?

10

If you’re supposed to be learning C++, though, I’d probably keep going with “1d.” Plus, if you’re already comfortable with your workflow as it currently is, you probably don’t need to upgrade.

That being said, I would definitely prefer 2d graphics over ASCII.

11

I agree with the majority here. The ASCII art is certainly has a charming cuteness to it, but it’s also inescapably abstract. While the 2D pixel art is bound to have a bit of abstraction of its own, it lets you imbue a character with so much more personality. You’ll have way more freedom to give them poses, facial expressions, colors, physique, etc. You sample image alone shows a massive improvement in all of these areas.

If you do switch to 2D pixel art. my only request is for female characters to have more noticeably feminine features. It doesn’t need to be anything drastic–just enough to keep male and female bodies from being interchangeable. Looking at your sample image, I’m imagining narrower shoulders, slightly wider hips, more effeminate eyes, a bit of roundness instead of flat pecs, and a less bowlegged stance.

4 Likes
12

There are ways to increase the visual appeal of ascii art; the most obvious being to increase the visual fidelity with increasingly small text. This obviously is harder and more fiddly than using pixel art by and large for the same level of detail but is is feasible. I used to play games in the early 90s that used icons and spreadsheet-esque draw fields to display space in a strategy game with as few kilobytes as possible and if the sacrifices in visuals allow for more depth otherwise (such as more detailed descriptions and mechanics, not unlike the strengths of similarly abstract ascii games like Dwarf Fortress), then I am perfectly happy with ‘1D’.

I find the current images kinda disappointing to be honest but I guess I don’t see it as being a clear cut either-or question.

1 Like
13

I know it’ll probably slow down updates, so I voted for text-based. Though the pixel sample you posted looks nice!

1 Like
14

I was pretty sure Gamemaker has a publish option so you can… well, publish the game.